The word of the day is: vanguard.
The vanguard is the leading edge of a movement: the persons or things leading the way. As such, I don’t have much first hand experience with it; I’m a committed “keep your head down and hope no one will notice” kind of guy.
Vanguard was also a video game for the Atari 2600. If I remember correctly, it involved flying a ship around the screen and shooting at things. The little ship was somewhat difficult to maneuver.